Andalucia and its Big Game 81 
from the trees, and when droves of domestic swine are turned 
loose into the woods to feed on these wild fruits. At that date 
the wild-boars also are in the habit of descending from the 
adjacent sierras, and wander far and wide over the wooded plains 
in search of that favourite food. 
When the acorns fall thus and ripe chestnuts strew the 
ground in these magnificent Estremenian forests, the young bloods 
of the district assemble to await the arrival of the boars upon 
the lower ground. Two kinds of dog are employed : the ordinary 
podencos, which run free; and the alanos, a breed of rough- 
haired “seizers,” crossed between bull-dog and mastiff—these 
latter being held in leash. 
Sallying forth at midnight, so soon as the podencos give 
tongue, the alanos are slipped in order to “ hold-up” the flying 
boar till the horsemen can reach the spot. 
Then for a while hound-music frightens the darkness and 
shocks the silence of the sleeping woods; there is crashing among 
dry forest-scrub, a breakneck scurry of mounted men among 
the timber, until the furious baying of the hounds and the noisy 
rush of the hunters converge towards one dark point among the 
shadows, and in the half-light a great grisly tusker dies beneath 
the cold steel, but not before he has written a lasting record on 
the hide of some luckless hound. 
A stiff neck and bold heart are essential to these dare-devil 
gallops, where each horse and horseman vie in reckless rivalry, 
flying through bush and brake, and under overhung boughs 
difficult to distinguish amid moon-rays intercepted by foliage 
above. Accidents of course oceur—an odd collar-bone or two 
hardly count, but what does annoy is when by mistake some 
wretched beast of domestic race is found held up by the excited 
pack, 
ZEA 
Se 
